There were actually quite a few times where the military people shut down his worst impulses, so I don’t think this counts. A lot of the “Let Trump be Trump” moments came about simply because he was president, and that gave him the legal authority to do things, even if others disagreed with him. A soldier following orders because that’s what they swore to do, and the orders aren’t technically illegal, is very different from a soldier following orders because you’ve convinced them that it’s actually a good idea.
For non-military people, how many people did he fire because they wouldn’t just go along with his schemes? It took him years to find the toadies who would do his bidding, and in those cases, that’s what those people already wanted to do. He didn’t need to convince them, he just needed to find them. And he didn’t even really need to “find” them, because a lot of the shitty people were clamoring for an opportunity to get a job that allowed them to be Officially Shitty.